MAP27: Monster Condo (Doom 2 In Name Only)

MAP27: Monster Condo is the twenty-seventh map of Doom 2 In Name Only. It was designed by Joseph Lord. The par time defined in MAPINFO is 7:00.

Blue key
Kill the imp in front of you, which will cause a Hell knight (or baron of Hell on Ultra-Violence (UV) and Nightmare (NM) skill levels) to teleport in, then quickly take the supercharge on the red star - a voodoo doll will give you a super shotgun, chaingun and rocket launcher at the same time. Open the green-panelled wall to enter a blood pool, then look at the east wall to see three cages - the middle cage has a button inside it that you can shoot to open a wall in the south-west corner. Press the brown panel behind this wall to lower it and reveal a tunnel, but do not go into the tunnel right away - a wooden panel to the north has lowered, revealing a second button that will open a barricade inside the tunnel. Follow the tunnel to a room with bookcases, collecting a chainsaw on the way, then press the panel in the south-west corner that has a painting on it to lower a barricade behind you. Go up the steps behind the barrier to collect a berserk pack and a super shotgun, then try to open the door here - a compartment containing cacodemons and spectres will open behind you. Go to the lower level and enter the spectres' chamber to find a red button that will open the door you just used.

Go through the door to a blood stream and follow it round two corners to face some knights - a couple of them will teleport to try and surround you. At the east end of the stream is a skull switch that will open two monster closets holding many imps and an arch-vile; kill them then go inside the west closet and press another skull switch to lower some barriers and allow you to enter the room to the south where you will find another switch on the south wall. Flip this switch then open the large door to the east to confront some revenants and a chaingunner, then follow the tunnel to a large courtyard - there are cacodemons and pain elementals hiding inside the marble blocks at the north end, and when you go towards the skull switch on the south wall a cyberdemon will be released behind you along with a spiderdemon that teleports in. Press that switch and kill two revenants and/or arch-viles that teleport in behind you, then head through the west door before it closes to enter a small room with a cage.

Walk north to a tunnel blocked by two barons, kill them along with the spectres and shotgun guys that teleport behind you then take the radiation shielding suit at the tunnel entrance before heading north through the lava. The tunnel will bring you to a lava moat in front of a marble castle - follow the path east to a building defended by shotgun guys and chaingunners, go inside and press the skull switch on the south wall to open the bridge to the north; this will also allow two to four knights to teleport in and block the exits. Go back outside and head north across the bridge, take the BFG9000, supercharge and megaarmor here then open the large gate to confront a pack of imps (as well as one or two arch-viles on Hurt Me Plenty (HMP) or higher). As you go through the gate you will alert two arch-viles (or a cyberdemon on HMP or higher) that will teleport to the room at the top of the steps; dispose of them along with a pack of zombies that teleport in, then go through the north-west door in the upper room to enter a hallway with a magma floor.

The magma floor is damaging, so head straight forward to collect a supercharge, which will alert a baron and some imps to your left, then run back to the door and kill the monsters from there as they approach. Once the hallway is clear follow it to a lava pool, collecting a radiation suit on the way, and kill some waiting spectres then walk up to the metal bars at the south end of the room; two arch-viles will teleport in behind you. Kill these monsters then go to the west side of the south-west column and press the button that has opened here to open the metal bars blocking your path. Head through them and proceed west to an outdoor area with pain elementals and barons, then climb up the rocks on the west side and press a skull switch at the top to lower the blue skull key.

Red and yellow keys
Retrace your steps to the castle's entrance hall, but this time open the north-east door to confront two revenants then go up the stairs, collecting a supercharge on the way. Once you reach the top, look left to see two paintings with candles in front of them then press the right-hand painting to open the door and release knights and/or a baron (pressing the left-hand painting will release lost souls). Go through the door and press the small green column with the beating heart to lower the walls, revealing one or two arachnotrons and a teleporter maze; the room will brighten as you enter it. To get through the maze you must only step on the pads that have pentagrams - stepping on any other pads will teleport you into the lava on the west side of the moat outside. When you reach the white pad at the end of the maze you will teleport to a ledge on the south side of the courtyard - go through either of the doorways behind you to find two revenants guarding a green-panelled wall, then open that wall and carefully drop over the wall in front of you to land on the red skull key. Watch out for a pack of mancubi that are released behind you as you descend into the blood pool.

Taking the red key opened a small gap in the north-west corner of the blood pool, allowing you to reach a lift behind it. Ride the lift up to a tunnel leading back to the courtyard, then retrace your steps to the teleporter maze and open the red key door next to it to enter a wide corridor with an arch-vile (or cyberdemon on HMP or higher); it will teleport to a nearby room when it sees you, but do not relax as multiple monsters, including one or more arch-viles, are hiding behind the false pentagram walls in this area. Follow the corridor until it bends to the south to see a mancubus, kill the revenants and baron hiding behind the false wall to its right then go through the small doorway in the west wall to see the monster that teleported away from you earlier; it will teleport to a neighboring hallway and you will need to contend with a horde of zombiemen that teleport in. Walk through the south wall in this room, which is also false, to enter the aforementioned hallway then follow it to a chamber with a large gray throne.

There is a megasphere in front of the throne, but ready yourself before taking it as it will allow a pack of revenants, cacodemons and pain elementals to enter the chamber along with a cyberdemon and spiderdemon that teleport in; getting them to infight is encouraged. Climb up the west staircase then open the blue skull bars on your left to reach a blood pit protected by imps, chaingunners and an arachnotron. Go through the window behind the arachnotron to land on some battlements overlooking the lava moat, which are guarded by mancubi, then look west to see the yellow skull key (unless you are playing on I'm Too Young To Die (ITYTD) or Hey Not Too Rough (HNTR), in which case it will not appear - see Bugs).

Exit
Go back up to the blood pit, where a teleporter has lowered by the north wall that leads back to the courtyard (it will not function on ITYTD or HNTR - see Bugs). Open the east door of the courtyard to enter a room where many imps will teleport in, dispatch them along with some knights then go to the north-east corner to press a gargoyle switch - this will open a barrier in the opposite corner of the room, but will also open four alcoves containing revenants. Enter the blood pool on the south side of the room and press the lion switch on the east wall to open a teleporter to your left, carefully step round the teleporter to collect a supercharge then step through it to return to the blood pit. A metal pillar on the east wall of the pit has lowered, allowing you to enter a red tunnel leading to a lava pool. Take the invulnerability at the tunnel exit then run up the rocks until you reach the ledge on the east side of the pool, where an arch-vile will teleport in to block your path - kill it before it can blast you into the lava, then step into the large hole it was guarding to finish the level.

Secrets

 * 1) Outside the starting room, go to the building's left side and press on the wall underneath the blue torch to lower a backpack. (sector 59)
 * 2) In the courtyard with the cyberdemon, cacodemons and pain elementals appearing from the blocks, press the skull switch in the north-west, which lowers the two platforms with chaingunners. Go to the north-east platform and it will rise up. If you press on the right-most wall, you will find an imp guarding a switch. Press this switch and fall back down, pressing the skull switch in the north-west corner again to lower the platforms. This time, ride the one next to the skull switch up, and you should find an open door. Inside will be an energy cell pack and an invulnerability (the energy cell pack does not appear on UV and NM). (sector 468)
 * 3) Press the skull switch at the south end of the courtyard to open up the door on the west side. Notice the wooden skull panels in the next room. One of the skulls does not have red eyes. Use this skull panel to find two boxes of rockets. (sector 245)
 * 4) Just before you reach the rocky outdoor area with the blue key, there will be a passageway of armor bonuses with two satyr switches to the sides. Press the south switch, which is not lit, to lower a block east of the passageway. Past this block, you will find two boxes of rockets and a supercharge. (sector 187)
 * 5) When you reach the teleporter maze, go along the teleporters, staying on the ones that have pentagrams (five lines) until you reach the north wall. You are supposed to reach the gray teleporter with the pentagram on it, but once you reach the north wall, step onto the teleporter that has three lines running through it to teleport to a hidden area with a supercharge. (sector 263)
 * 6) In the marble hall with multiple pentagram faces and false walls, an arch-vile (or cyberdemon on HMP or higher) teleports away when you first open the red key door. Follow the marble hall until you reach the central room of the hall, where the cyberdemon will reappear alongside hordes of zombiemen. candle next to one of the walls marks that wall as a false wall, and an arch-vile may have attacked you from the other side of this wall, which had been blocked off by a cage. You can enter this wall from the side with the candle to collect another supercharge. (sector 502)
 * 7) Just east of the previous secret, there is both a hallway and a false wall you can go if you head east. A revenant may attack you from behind another false wall if you go in this direction. From where the revenant was, walk through the false wall for two energy cell packs. (sector 676)
 * 8) Gently drop down from where the yellow key is and you should land on a ledge with some cell ammo. (sector 558)
 * 9) From the previous secret, enter the lighted pad on the west side to teleport to the large throne you saw before so you can collect a fourth supercharge. (sector 531)

Bugs
This map is impossible to complete on ITYTD or HNTR without cheats due to the yellow key being absent on those difficulty settings. The destination for the teleporter that lowers when you collect the key is also missing on ITYTD or HNTR.

In the south-western room that is north-west from the starting area, the switch on the eastern part of the room is supposed to lower the walls that hold a bunch of imps and an arch-vile, but in some versions when the switch is pressed, it doesn't, which makes it impossible to complete this level without cheating.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on April 3, 2022.

Player spawns
This level contains five spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 1527)
 * 2) facing south. (thing 1528)
 * 3) facing north. (thing 1529)
 * 4) facing north. (thing 1530)
 * 5) facing south-east. (thing 1531)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: